My corals have been looking rather sad for the past 1-2 weeks.
Tank: 6-7 months old, 35 gals
May 1: Bacterial Bloom. Cleared up and dropped nitrates to 1. They are typically around 10-12 since I mainly have LPS corals.
May 12: 5 gal water change and cleaned all the algae off the back wall for the first time. Corals were fine at this time.
May 19: 5 gal water change because hammers started closing up and my sand bed started turning red; which I believe to be algae and no cyano but unsure. Nitrates are at 4. With everything else within normal levels. Maybe a slight spike in ph but after a water change that's not uncommon. Acans have also started to close up. My watchman goby also became stressed and started acting crazy. Jumping and swimming all over the tank when he usually chills on the sandbed in the same area. Unsure if it's related. Other fish are acting normal.
May 24: Did another 5gal water change in case something got into the tank that wasn't supposed to be there. Next morning (today) things are looking the same. Also, switch out my carbon.
Last Parameters:
Cal: 410 (a little low but not way off)
Mag: 1500 (tad higher than usually but not by much and I have LPS)
Alk: 7.7
Nitrates: 4
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.25
PH: 8
Phosphates: I always get the 0.0 reading on the hanna checker
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
I do make sure my salinity and temp of water changes match the tank for water changes.
Theories:
Nitrates are just lower than normal?
Removing large amounts of algae off the back wall threw things off?
Something I'm unaware of got into the tank?
Tank: 6-7 months old, 35 gals
May 1: Bacterial Bloom. Cleared up and dropped nitrates to 1. They are typically around 10-12 since I mainly have LPS corals.
May 12: 5 gal water change and cleaned all the algae off the back wall for the first time. Corals were fine at this time.
May 19: 5 gal water change because hammers started closing up and my sand bed started turning red; which I believe to be algae and no cyano but unsure. Nitrates are at 4. With everything else within normal levels. Maybe a slight spike in ph but after a water change that's not uncommon. Acans have also started to close up. My watchman goby also became stressed and started acting crazy. Jumping and swimming all over the tank when he usually chills on the sandbed in the same area. Unsure if it's related. Other fish are acting normal.
May 24: Did another 5gal water change in case something got into the tank that wasn't supposed to be there. Next morning (today) things are looking the same. Also, switch out my carbon.
Last Parameters:
Cal: 410 (a little low but not way off)
Mag: 1500 (tad higher than usually but not by much and I have LPS)
Alk: 7.7
Nitrates: 4
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.25
PH: 8
Phosphates: I always get the 0.0 reading on the hanna checker
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
I do make sure my salinity and temp of water changes match the tank for water changes.
Theories:
Nitrates are just lower than normal?
Removing large amounts of algae off the back wall threw things off?
Something I'm unaware of got into the tank?